Santos has resurrected his career with the Bears after it was derailed by injuries. He has eclipsed Robbie Gould as the franchise’s most accurate kicker, making 89.1 percent of his field goals (57 of 64). Santos has connected on 1 of 2 in two games with the Bears in 2017, 30 of 32 in 2020 and 26 of 30 in 2021. He converted 40 straight field goals bridging the 2020 and 2021 seasons, a team record that’s tied for the third longest streak in NFL history.
When the Bears allowed O’Donnell to leave via free agency and then selected Gill in the seventh round of the draft, Santos conceded that he was a little worried about adjusting to a new holder. But Gill quickly allayed those concerns.
“It’s exceeded my expectations when dealing with a new guy just because I’ve bounced around and had to do workouts with different holders and with different teams and getting adjusted,” Santos said.
“As soon as Trent came in, I was able to watch him a little bit and see how he is with his hands. He’s very athletic, very comfortable when he’s holding. And I knew having Scales back after him being a free agent was going to be huge for our operation. [He’s] somebody I trust, somebody who I think is one of the best in the league. Good laces control, which makes it easier for the holder to just catch the ball and put it down the way I like.”
Gill honed his skills as a punter and holder at North Carolina State.
“There are guys that just don’t quite have the hands as good as others,” Santos said. “But Trenton already had that skill, and Scales makes it super easy, too, because he’s so consistent with the laces. The majority of the time, Trenton doesn’t even have to mess with it, he just kind of feels it and knows where he is, knows where I want to point the laces to and that’s it. Scales helps and Trenton already is a great holder, so I think that helped just get going sooner and let us have a great offseason and training camp.”
Santos said that Gill has been “really molding the ball the way I…
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